


Mind Over Matter

by ThisIsLightful



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Crack Treated Too Seriously, Matt Murdock gets possessed, Open Ending, Other, Parasitical Second Consciousness, Pepper Potts is our Patron Saint, Possession, Rhodey is our Lord and Savior, There's only love and affection for Pepper Potts in this Target, Tony Stark is lovely, dream - Freeform, ending up for interpretation, just really whacko, like guys this is way too seriously written but it's how we felt in the dream soooo, this was from a dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 04:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15453693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisIsLightful/pseuds/ThisIsLightful
Summary: Parasitical second consciousnesses are being injected into people; systematically replacing important people with their friends and family and coworkers none the wiser. Tony Stark is a victim of one such attack. Except... He and his (new) second personality get along surprisingly well. Neither of them really know what's going on and, well... Down the rabbit hole they go, in an attempt to find out what's going on. Matt Murdock seems to really have become the Devil, and there's more going on than either personality understands. The stakes are rising, and they just /really/ want to chill with Pepper. Is that too much to ask?





	Mind Over Matter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_casket_girls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_casket_girls/gifts).



> This was based off of a weird dream I had. The second consciousness was never named (and couldn't remember ever having one) so I decided to use first person pronouns to refer to her. It was an absurdly weird dream. I rushed the ending a bit because it was getting to over 12 pages on google docs.  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this! Because I have no idea how to feel about it myself.  
> WARNING: Not beta-read, so there are spelling/editing errors.

Consciousness is fluid.

Being aware is not our inherent state of being.

We are not meant to be aware. We are meant to be sleeping. 

We’re in a coma, actually.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Clint. It’s Clint. Thank God for Clint Barton. He cares about us, about Tony Stark, for some damned reason, and would never let us be hurt. “Tony’ll wake up. He’s strong.”

“Of course he will. He’s just one of us, you know? And one of the most well known. To see him down is just…”

Shit. Of course. It’s Daredevil. Damned demon Daredevil-who-isn’t-really-Daredevil. He’s made us like him. Well, made TONY like him, I’m the infection. The Other Awareness that keeps him up. But I try to keep him whole, too. He doesn’t resent me. But we fear. Oh, we FEAR Daredevil. Matt Murdock is gone and no one but us knows. He was eaten by the Other. But no one knows. No one.

Shuffling. “I can’t stay here. I’ll visit him again later. You know how it is.” Clint. Clint, no.

“Sure thing. I’ll stay behind. I just gotta  _ see _ that he’s breathing.”

Clint chuckles. No, Clint. No. Please, no. We’re begging you, don’t-- “Fuck you, Murdock. See you at five.”

Don’t leave us. Not with It. With what once was HIM.

A hand squeezed bruises on our wrists.

“You can win this fight, sister.” It’s Tony that first realizes that the Other-Daredevil is talking to  _ me.  _ But I have no fight. I was slipped into this man’s mind; a man who wants peace, who loves and cares so much that it’s painful just experiencing it secondhand. Maybe that Otherness didn’t first slip into all of the morality inside Daredevil, maybe it just saw the fighting and the pain and emulated it.

_ Or maybe,  _ Tony thinks, with far more fondness than he should have for a parasitical second-consciousness that was forcefully entered into his brain,  _ you’re just a good person. _

_ Am I even a person. _

_ A person isn’t their body, yanno. You should have realized that by now: is JARVIS not a person? Isn’t FRIDAY human? _ _  
_ __ _ Okay, okay. Yeesh. _ We sink back into the darkness, we know we’ll wake up soon.

****

“Glad to see you up!” Cap slaps our back. It’s painful, but we don’t tell them that.  _ We should,  _ I think.  _ He’ll give us those sad-puppy eyes and be afraid to touch anyone for days,  _ Tony shoves a memory of said puppy eyes in my face. My metaphorical-- metaphysical?-- face that is. I reluctantly agree. Those are very sad eyes, after all.

“I can’t wait to be allowed to prank you again.” There’s a tiredness to Clint’s eyes, a faded frown stuck around his mouth, and the love for Tony’s-- our-- team swells within the compressed confines of our heart, safe within the reactor.

“Bruce would be here, but he thought he might Hulk out if he had to see you so vulnerable again.” And that’s Natasha. Hair dyed black this time, her relief conveyed through the lack of tensed muscles in her body.

“Yeah, woulda’ been a shame if you slept on, Stark. There’s so much going on in the world. Hammertech might have gotten ahead of you by now.” Daredevil. Anger boils in our blood like fire, like the ashes Tony’s eaten over and over again so that he may burn more brilliantly than the last time.  _ Burn him worse than Obadiah, than Ten Rings, because neither of them had dared touch Tony’s MIND! _

“You know me,” I begin flippantly, before letting Tony take control of our motormouth, “I’d outsmart the devil to come back. You’d all miss me too much. After all, there’s no one quite. Like. Me.” Tony isn’t exactly being subtle.  _ There’s only one time you can do this. Once he knows, he  _ **_knows_ ** _. _

But Tony didn’t do subtle. So he bared his teeth in a facsimile of a grin at the Otherness’s unseeing eyes. 

Tony was explosions. Was being torn down molecule by molecule to rebuild himself in the image of future needs.  _ I’m a futurist,  _ he liked to say; well, I guess I have to be one, too, now. Why’d I have to share a body with  _ this  _ man?  _ Insufferable,  _ I chided, but he could feel the affection and it just made him grin wider.

The Devil’s smile is wan and mean, “Maybe, but we’d get over you. You’re such an egotrip, Stark.” There’s laughter, and Tony wants to scream.

****

Brain scans. We need definitive proof if we want the team to believe us. Believe that we’re now a two-for-one deal and that the Devil isn’t himself. We’ve told Rhodey and Pepper and Happy and the bots-- it feels like a million people, but they can keep quiet. They’ve met me, and they’ve seen us blend into one movement, and they know it’s the truth.  _ Rhodey,  _ Tony thinks of being covered in oil and college and learning that  _ science is art and science can be bonding _ from an older boy who yanked at his ears and told him he looked like Dumbo,  _ Rhodey is a sign that there might be a Heaven out there, somewhere.  _ I can’t help but agree.

The Devil’s been hard on us. When we train, he sprains and cuts and leaves wounds that linger but don’t hinder. He pauses and sniffs and grins a grim grin and we  _ know _ that he’s planning, plotting who to try to turn next.  _ The next one,  _ Tony fears,  _ won’t be so lucky. _

So. Brain scans. I’m not a genius, but I’m swimming in the mind of one, so I pick up things fast. The Devil’s brain has completely changed. Which, really, should be enough proof. While it might sway Clint and Bruce and Natasha, Cap is a whole other matter. He’ll be wary, but insist that Matt Murdock is still alive in there. That he can be saved.  _ There’s no saving what’s no longer there.  _

In a twisted way, we hope that Jessica Jones will be the one to get the next “parasite”.  _ Intrusive Consciousness,  _ Tony insists.  _ Second Personality; Synthetic Human Introduction.  _ He’s spitting off a thousand different terms to try and combat me, but we know it’s true, I feel it and he forgets that.  _ Parasite, Invasive Organism.  _

See, Jessica has already built up defenses from her time with Killian. She could destroy or cooperate with the  _ Parasite/Split  _ better than anyone else. But it would tear her apart. Her mind’s been screwed with enough. We hope no one suffers this.

We hope that she’s the next target.

****

It’s a few days later that we’re crowded into a wall. A blindspot.  _ We have to fix that. FRIDAY deals with most of our business, JARVIS with security. JARVIS hates overlooking even the most infinitesimal of possibilities. Better coverage next time. Full 360 degree camera coverage without any of that circular distortion. Having the camera visibly move for coverage would be too obvious. Many smaller cameras making up one camera facing different directions? It would only require a little tweaking of the A.W.A.R.E.N.E.S.S. line…  _ And Tony was babbling, even if only internally, because the Devil just stood. Towering. Tony cursed his height and tried to focus on inventing a new camera system to keep his expression placid.

“Sister,” the Other addressed me, and I moved our body into something more defensive. A gauntlet ready to be formed and a suit to be called with a twist of our wrist. Tony tilted our head, his brown eyes glaring daggers at the sightless parasite, throat exposed in a way that made my instincts recoil.  _ Maybe you’re more animalistic than we thought,  _ Tony laughed humorlessly. We didn’t know what I was. We didn’t know who made me,  _ us. _

“Sister, if you don’t want big brother to come, I suggest you listen to me. You don’t need this man: his memories will remain for your perusal, his genius would be yours. I wish I could have found you a more feminine body-- perhaps this is why you insist on rebelling?” There was a teasing lilt in his voice, despite the threatening lines of his body.

He closed in. Tony wanted to remain rooted in place,  _ like a tree _ Aunt Peggy had said. But Aunt Peggy had also been a military woman in the forties, and knew when to pick her fights. So Tony let me contort us so that we shuffled back, elbows out enough to hit the Other with them if he came closer. 

It hit me.  _ Big Brother. The Crimson Killer. Leaves nothing of his victims bodies aside from a full body’s worth of blood. Somehow managed only probation and no prison time _ Tony assessed. I had the information, he had the ability to process. 

_ Go team!  _ I cheered. 

_ This’d be easier with Rhodey,  _ was the grousing reply. Tony was such an old man.  _ Am not! _

“Come on, sister-mine. Tic-toc.”

“I’m not  _ your  _ anything.” snapped Tony.  _ Pepper claimed us already, too bad so sad.  _ We didn’t mind Pepper claiming us. Ah, Pepper. A lovely woman. Formidable. Not a jackass. Wish we were with here and not with this creep.

“I wasn’t talking to  _ you. _ ” His hand came closer. Too close. Cradled our jaw in his hand and squeezed. We’d have finger marks there for sure. “Brother will be coming in a few days. Wouldn’t want anything to happen, no? So be a good girl, little sister.” his hand slid down to our neck, his breath rank.

“God, do you even brush?” 

_ Tony!  _

_ Oh, like you weren’t thinking he could use a mint? _

“Don’t worry,” the Devil said, and Tony briefly thought about praying to gods he doesn’t believe in, “I’ll get you back in our next sparring match.” It was all so soft, a kindly pat on our cheek and a fond ruffle of hair only made him seem softer. We shuddered, unnerved. 

We didn’t tell anyone. But Tony had the smarts to record the conversation on his phone. It was being saved as evidence, along with the brain scans, a file comparing Daredevil’s activity before and after Tony’s-- our-- coma, and the statistics on how much harder he was being on Tony during sparring matches.  _ Still not enough,  _ insisted Tony. I frowned with our mouth, walked down to our safe space: The Lab. I thought Tony was being too paranoid about his team’s doubts, but kept quiet. 

_ After we meet this big brother, we tell them. _

_ Fine by me. _

****

We were having a drink with Pepper. She knew something was up, but didn’t pry. She was being more touchy than usual, which was extra nice because I’d made her wary; a third party in her monogamous relationship, after all. Apparently, though, I made things more… exciting. It helped that I made Tony take care of himself and remembered things that Pepper wanted and needed. “Tony’s such a scatterbrain,” she’d said with a smile, “you made him remember my birthday.” Tony had felt guilty, but it had been the start of Pepper more than just tolerating me.

_ Pepper,  _ we thought unanimously, our heart bursting with love,  _ our Patron Saint. _

“So, I was thinking…” she was biting her lip, looking at us from underneath her eyelashes. She’d been acting coy all night. We talked about normal things, and shared concerns, but she kept hinting at something. She was wearing our favorite outfit: a light blue dress, purple lipstick, comfortable but fashionable flats, hair twisted in a braid that set our fingers twitching to undo. 

Pepper sat straighter, inching forward. Her painted nails scratched through our hair, her spine ramrod straight as she smiled. “You have the most beautiful of thoughts,” I murmured, watching her. Her eyes were so kind, and her resolve so strong. I could look at her for years and not get bored.  “Do go on,” purred Tony, pulling her closer. He, on the other hand, was always thinking, always moving. Just looking wouldn’t satisfy. He needed to talk to her, to touch her, to see her transform from cutthroat business woman to caring girlfriend to ruthless opponent to charity organizer. Pepper was a study in human complexity, and boy, did Tony enjoy studying  _ her. _

She laughed, and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. I hadn’t been alive long, but I wanted more of this. I wanted to taste the sound.  _ That’s what wanting to kiss someone’s like,  _ Tony pulled her closer yet again, letting me digest that thought. “You were thinking?” 

“Well, I read something interesting. I think it might be  _ fun _ to try, don’t you?” she handed him a StarkPad with an article already pulled up. 

“Sir,”JARVIS interrupted, and Tony groaned. I shared the sentiment. “Sir, there appears to be someone in your room. I have thus far been unable to identify the intruder. How should I proceed, Sir?” JARVIS dropped “sir”s like nervous children dropped “mom”s and “dad”s. 

“Sorry Pep-In-My-Step,” he gave her a chaste kiss, pulling away as gauntlets began whirring. I clenched our fists, unclenched, clenched, adjusting to the cool metal. “We’ve gotta handle this. Stay where you are, we are gonna return to  _ this. _ ” He winked, glancing obviously at the article with a lecherous grin. 

Pepper sighed, smiling softly even as her eyes hardened. She was perfect, really. “Keep him safe, okay?”   
“Hey!”

“I will.”

Tony pouted, “Stop teaming up against me! You’re in my head! You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“Sorry,” I said as we turned away from Pepper (a feat in and of itself), “But Pepper’s always right. You know the rules.”

Her laughter was nervous, and our jaw clenched.  _ Nothing  _ was allowed to ruin that laugh of hers and  _ not _ get destroyed.

Tony stepped into his room, the lights turned on. No one. Tony squinted. “JARVIS, activate the lockdown protocol.”

A pause. “Are you sure, Sir?”

Tony breathed. In. Out. His reactor ached in our chest. Lungs burned. In. And. Out. “Positive. Protocol: Treasure Chest. Code: Jar of Dirt. Password is Whiskey, Alfa, Tango, Charlie, Hotel.”

Another pause. A sigh. “Password accepted. Protocols initiated.” A recording of Tony’s voice played, “Nobody gets in, J. And nobody gets out. Capische?” Quiet.

Tony eyed the shadows by the window. I knew big brother was there, the dread I felt could mean nothing else. 

“Hey.” Tony put his gauntlet covered hands in his pockets. He felt naked without the suit. I wished we were back with Pepper. “Whatcha want? We were kinda on a date and it seemed to be taking a turn for the better, if you know what I mean.”

“So vulgar,” yellow teeth flashed, green eyes unnatural bright. A muscled figure, pale as death and smelling like it, too, stepped out from the shadows. “I like. Wanna show me what you can do,  _ big boy? _ ” Tony was immediately unbalanced. Disgust welled up in him.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m in a committed relationship. You know how those things go, right? And your sister kinda like, shares a body with me, and I don’t know how they did things where you’re from but that’s a big no-no here, buddy.”

“Oh, so we’re buddies now, huh?” The closer the man came, the more feverbright his eyes looked, the more unnatural his movements, the more the smell of blood became clear.

_ Don’t puke, Tony.  _ He really shouldn’t have looked at the bodies the police  _ had _ managed to find. Beyond mangled. Something carved into their skin. Odd energy readings. And, looking at the blood beneath the man’s fingers, Tony could hazard a guess that being caught once hadn’t stopped the man.

“Well,” he stopped two feet in front of them, “Buddies to each other favors right?” He leaned in, eyes at half mast, and said almost sensually, “Then do me a favor and  _ listen _ , big boy. You too, lil sis.” He backed up, laughing at how nervous they looked. “Oh, like a cornered animal! C’mon, we could use you. The both of you, if you’re that insistent on keeping your little pet, sister. See, we need something. You have the information, sister, you only need to access it.”  _ Accessing it could break Tony’s brain,  _ I wanted to snarl. But I could already imagine the man’s flippant  _ so?  _ “Help us. In the end, what’s a few bodies in the name of progress?” He stepped closer again, his toes touching ours. Tony forced our body to look nonchalant: shoulders casually hunched, thumbs in pockets, eyebrow raised in critical boredom. “You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, Mr. Stark? You’re father even moreso.”

Tony’s body was like the string on Clint’s bow: pulled tight, ready to snap. “What.” He licked his lips, tried to ignore how the man seemed to watch its movement in fascination. “What do you mean, about my father.”

“Join us.” His hands were on our shoulders. I wanted to puke.  _ NOW who needs to pull themselves together?  _ Tony’s taunt was halfhearted at best. “Join us and you’ll have the answers you so desperately crave. I know your curiosity drives you, Stark. I know how much you crave answers. You always have. You love when things come together. It’s why you didn’t question why you stopped making guns and started making missiles: missiles were more of a challenge. A puzzle you could put together. You didn’t ask Obadiah  _ why _ , you simply  _ did.  _ To see if you  _ could.  _ There aren’t boundaries for men like you, Tony.  _ Tony.  _ You’re curious about who I am. About  _ how _ I am. How she is. And you are as well, aren’t you, dearheart? Don’t worry, sweetling, I haven’t forgotten about you. And both of you, I know you’ve checked my files-- it’s in your natures, after all. But you want to know more. Like how I didn’t get prison time.”

Something in their face must have given them away, because a flash of a knife and a pain in their neck was all the warning they got before they were slammed against a door.

“What do you know?” acid eyes were frantic, searing into them. Our hands scrabbled at his fingers, but even enhanced by the gauntlet he was stronger.  _ Johnson Piers, mutations: super strength, unknown secondary ability. Known killer.  _ And now  _ possessed _ could be added to the list of things.

__ “The judges--” I gasped. We couldn’t breathe. The pressure eased up.

“You didn’t have to buy the judges or the jury.” Tony looked the man in his eyes and I wanted to slap him, but slapping him is slapping me so I refrained. “You’ve got someone high up in the courts, someone like you and Daredevil and the woman in me. Presumably, you’ve got someone high up in our government, further than even the Supreme Court, I should think. We’ve spotted some odd behaviors in other people in other countries, and unforgivable crimes being forgiven when no one has been paid off and the defendant's level of influence seems relatively low. Not all of it is you, obviously, but a large portion of it is.”

A slow smile, a peck on the cheek, the knife gently tracing our neck and jaw, never breaking skin but a threat all the same. “How smart you are. Figured all that out on your own? And why tell me? I could kill you for that, you know.” His eyes flashed darker, the knife slashed quickly and broke skin, before it resumed its playful rasp. “I should kill you.”

“You need me.” I finally spoke. “It’s why you had Daredevil do more than he did: why you didn’t have him hurt us more seriously, or try talking me into taking over more. Your limited on people like us, like me. You need me. You can’t risk killing me. We’re connected. Killing me hurts you. Literally.” It was a guess, a theory. We held our breath.

The knife was taken away, and the eyes looked almost loving. “So smart.” he praised. “I’ll be back.” He giggled and leaned down, breathing on our lips. Tony had a million snappy comebacks on his tongue but swallowed them down, and the man watched Tony’s adam’s apple bob up and down with far too much interest. For a sickening second, we thought he’d try to kiss us.  _ ‘Try’ being the operative word,  _ I fumed. But he laughed again, wrenching open and jumping out the window. 

_ We need to upgrade the metal being used for lockdown. It has to be  _ **_at least_ ** _ Hulk-grade.  _

_ At least we learned something. He kept using ‘we’ and confirmed our suspicions: the organization of parasites is far greater than we thought. Taking down one of them could tear down the whole system, or part of it. And your father was involved in it. _

_ Dad seems to have been involved in everything… We could get more info. _

_ At the risk of you. _

_ At the risk of me. _

_ Not worth it. _

_ I’m frustrated. But grateful. _

We rattled off another code, and then, “JARVIS, you got that?”

“Protocol WATCH had been activated during lockdown, everything was thoroughly recorded and stored in several secure areas.”

“We have enough evidence now. We mentioned Daredevil by name and he agreed.”

We twisted the knob. Stepped out of the room. Saw Pepper’s red hair in the open area. 

“Tony!” she turned with a smile on her face. “Everything alr-” Her smile fell. “Oh, Tony. You’re shaking.” She stood up, walking over to us. Grabbed our hands. When had the gauntlets come off? When did we start trembling. “Oh, Tones.” She rubbed our back. We buried our face in her shoulder. Why were we crying. “I’m glad you weren’t alone. Neither of you.”

She didn’t ask another question. Simply kissed every part of our face and hands and held us tight to her.

In the corner of our eyes, we caught Daredevil. A syringe in his hand. Smirking. He made an obvious motion to Pepper, then walked away. Our heart sank.

How could we protect Pepper, beautiful, amazing, hardworking, forgiving Pepper, from a monster we barely understood?

****

There’s a Devil in the shadows, but he doesn’t have a name. None of them do. But they wait. Wait for us to falter. And we will. It’s only. A matter. Of. When.

****  
  



End file.
